LuftRausers: PS3 Review

LuftRausers: PS3 Review

Released on PS3

Raus, raus - the shoot'em'up returns.

In monochrome fashion and without any real bells and whistles. But, by goodness, it's as awesome fun as 1942 was in the old arcade gaming days.

From the studio Vlambeer, all you have to do is a pilot a plane in a 2D environment and shoot down other planes heading your way and take out the boats which are helping launch them. Sounds simple, right? And it kind of is - but it's frustratingly addictive as you take to the skies.

Controls are easy - you push up to launch your plane, keep using up to ensure your plane doesn't begin to stall and press X to keep firing. You'll take damage (trust me, it's inevitable) and as your plane begins to combust around you, the only way to stop yourself exploding is to let go of the fire button and gradually you'll heal. The problem with that, is that once you do, you begin to be surrounded by other planes.

And herein lies the compelling nature of LuftRausers - you've gotta get them all....

Graphically, it's simple stuff, reminiscent of the old Asteroids sims in many ways with its browns and chromes helping giving it a feel of something a bit different. IT takes a little while to get used to the techniques of the craft and mastering flying, swooping and shooting, but once you do, it's rewarding to say the least.

As your skill levels improve, so does the game in some ways - customisation opens up, colour palettes change - it's all wonderfully well put together for a simple PSN game.

All in all, Luftrausers is a fun experience, one which won't last too long if you don't improve your skills, but certainly one which will have you coming back for more the moment the Game Over sign comes up.

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Godzilla: Preview

Godzilla: Preview

It's fair to say this is big.

Monstrously big even.

Due out in May, Godzilla's got a whole heap of expectation on its broad reptilian, slightly nasty shoulders - and based on the 11 minutes of footage that was shown, I think it's more than likely to deliver on the destructive and personal level.

It's a tough one for Godzilla director Gareth Edwards; with creature features and CGI potentially inducing a sigh of indifference from audiences, there's really a whole heap of expectation that this blockbuster has to do the job.

The footage (which is snippets from the film, rather than a sequential piece) initially centred around Bryan Cranston's Joe Brody, who works at a nuclear plant (location not fully obvious just yet) and who's been troubled by a series of tremors that have rocked the region. With a kid in the background as he's on the phone, it's clear Brody's a family man - and the bond he has with his wife (played by Juliette Binoche) is clearly at the fore-front of the story. Joking that he doesn't want to appear to be "an American ranting maniac", Brody's warnings seem to veer into that territory before something unspeakable appears to happen at the nuclear reactor and he's forced to witness a decision play out that has consequences for both him and his family...To say more, would be to spoil it in some ways, but let's just say it doesn't end well, and gives some insight into Brody's cracked looking psyche and outlook on life 15 years on. Cranston's powerfully watchable in these brief moments - the initial meltdown at the plant is out of true Godzilla lore but the creature doesn't appear in these early sequences; merely hints of it.

It's 15 years later that the story begins to take shape, with Brody heading back to his family home which was cordoned off (presumably during some kind of meltdown / explosion) and feeling that a conspiracy has been underway; and also something is awakening.

The action then switches to what we've seen of the soldiers being called in to deal with some form of destruction and the chaos starts to appear to unravel. It's here that you get a sense of the scope of Edwards' ambition; hints of the creature, a powerful mist that appears to emanate out and incapacitate areas seems to be odd as the action starts to really kick in. Those shots you've already seen in the trailers of planes being tossed casually out of the sky and soldiers dropping in are only really the start of it - and Edwards seems to show remarkable restraint, suggesting that Godzilla will be more than just a movie where everything's tossed over the screen and destruction happens simply for the sake of it.

As a tsunami hits one area (possibly Hawaii, given the palm trees), there's the shot of a dog trying to outrun the wall of water as it heads his way - and then a swathe of destruction covers the screen. It's clear that there's to be carnage when Godzilla attacks, but what I appreciated in this footage is just how calm it is (if that makes sense) - sure, there's a lot to take in on the screen, but it's never overwhelming and you're always craning for a full shot of the Godzilla beast, indicating that Edwards is taking time to let the story breathe.

Shots of the Statue of Liberty being slightly destroyed are mixed in with the footage of the paratroopers dropping into the zone and firing flares to reveal the scale of Godzilla; and there's also a brief glimpse of Elizabeth Olsen (and cute kid) being told on a phone by Aaron Taylor-Johnson that he needs to tell her that he loves her...

Perhaps the coolest shot of the footage is the flash of lightning that reveals the Godzilla creature's outline - it's an awesome moment that really provides a level of excitement for the film's release on May 15th.

Early indications that this will be a monster at the box office, but not just the smash and grab destruction of the usual kinds of films - while Godzilla is always about the monster and the inhumanity, it's clear that Edwards is inserting a lot of the human element in with Cranston and Olsen's characters - how it all plays out will be thrilling to see.

Watch the brand new Godzilla International trailer here...

 

Dark Souls II: PS3 Review

Dark Souls II: PS3 Review

Platform: PS3
Published by Bandai Namco

Wow, it's tough.


The sequel to the phenomenally popular Dark Souls is going to require a little patience from you. Actually, scratch that, a lot of patience.

You're an undead soul, who's been cursed and who's basically, trying to find a cure for this curse to make life a little better. Travelling around different worlds, you unlock basic memories from within your past by taking on several challenges and by ensuring you survive (no mean feat, believe you me) as the world around you proffers up nasty challengers to overcome.

AS you negotiate your way around the world of Drangelic (an incredibly dark world, but one which has been beautifully realised within), you will find each death gives you a chance to learn from your demise. Skill mastering early on is a painful process as you die repeatedly within its confines - but re-spawning and starting again, while incredibly frustrating, is a vital part of the learning process and helps you to ensure your longer survival.

There's a real sense of foreboding throughout, an ominous presence that lurks in the background and adds to the menace within. Large parts of the game scape are dark and will require lighting, but sometimes you're not always best rewarded for what you may find within. It's a curious case of style over substance, because there's very little story within and the game relies heavily on your investment into this character and the journey.

But it rewards you with stunning visuals and sense of another world, expertly realised. It may pay though to play the first game before you delve into this one, given that you can get some of the mechanics of the game from the earlier predecessor. There are also training videos on the internet, which I initially scoffed at, but soon found myself heading to get a guiding hand that was sorely needed thanks to my arrogance.

All in all, Dark Souls 2 is a challenging game and one that doesn't reward the casual gamer. If you're willing to invest into this, then you may find yourself particularly and curiously thrilled by what lies ahead - for sometimes, the journey is more about the steps than the ultimate destination.

Edge of Tomorrow: Preview

Edge of Tomorrow: Preview

Well, now here is a pleasant surprise.

While I'd heard of Edge of Tomorrow, I'd consciously avoided all of the trailers for the film, not out of malice or spite, but just to be fresh and see something different.

It's an adaptation of a Japanese graphic novel (All You Need Is Kill) and is directed by Swingers' Doug Liman and stars Cruise as well as Emily Blunt - and as well as being a blast of sci-fi/ time travel, it's also incredibly funny.

The 25 minutes of footage that I saw was introduced by the man himself, Mr Tom Cruise, and concentrated on his praise for the film-makers, the crew and his co-star, Emily Blunt, whom he described as "bad-ass" in the new film. Then, a brief intro gives the setting of the film, which takes place in the final days of Earth's final stand against an alien invasion - and Cruise may hold the key to ending it all. Except for the fact he is not a fighter, more a PR man drafted into the army to handle that side of things.

As the footage begins, Cruise wakes up on a military base, thanks to Bill Paxton's Sgt Farell urging this "maggot" to get ready for combat. As Cruise's character, Major William Cage protests his innocence and that he needs to make a phone call. As Farell apparently heads Cage off into a tent to make said call, he reveals that Cage is a deserter and that he's to fight....Then, Cage is on a drop ship, taking off to enter the warzone, with his worrying that he can't take the safety off his gun being his primary concern.

But there's bigger fish to fry when the ship's blown apart by an explosion and Cage is sent spiralling down to the ground via a bungy cord, straight into the danger zone. With no fighting prowess evident, it's Cage trying to save his own life as the aliens attack, the crafts fall from the sky and chaos begins to reign. What's evident from this footage is how much is going on - it's reminiscent of Starship Troopers, with the combat suits the troops are wearing looking something like out of HALO. But what's also evident is a kind of macabre humour - almost Looney Tunes-esque in its execution. A fellow squaddie is squashed by an exploding craft, many of them dangle like Wile E Coyote going off a cliff while chasing Road Runner - there's gallows humour amongst the carnage.

Then, there's Emily Blunt. As Cage negotiates the attacks from the squids that burrow and attack from the ground, we're introduced to Blunt's bad-ass as she takes on the baddies. But it's a fight she loses and despite valiant efforts, Cage ends up back with his troops, only to be taken out by a squid that explodes onto his face, turns his pupils dilated black and ends up with his screams.

And then, he wakes up exactly where we began with Farrell screaming at him.

It's here the Groundhog Day concept kicks in - after lashings of Starship Troopers, as Cage tries to use his foreknowledge to save those around him. But as is evidenced by the sly humour on show during this film, his ranting merely ends up with tape across his mouth as he's pushed back onto the jump ship and forced to fight, reliving the horror and dying a different way around this time.

Before cycling back to the start - and just when you think the gag's about to wear off, Liman throws another narrative curve ball your way and hooks you in, with Emily Blunt's character telling Cage to "Come find me when you wake up." It's a sucker punch which really piqued my interest and pulled me in - a clever twist that hints at more within this, with Blunt's character revealing she had this same power but lost it....but she's willing to use Cage to help her end the war.

It's here that a series of combat training sequences are launched for Cage, as he's trained up to get battle ready and help on the fighting front. But it's also here that a sardonic wit and a matter of factness about Blunt's character is revealed - when Cage is severely injured in training, her simple reaction is to simply pull out her gun, and shoot him in the face, knowing full well it'll loop back to the beginning. There's a few of these gags as the casual Cruise killing continues, but it shows the harder dynamic with Cage trying to convince her not to, or downplaying injuries to ensure he doesn't have to go through it all again.

A final sequence at a farm house reveals a softer side to Blunt's character and hints at a lightening of the relationship as time goes on - but there's a reason why Cage is trying to charm her as he knows that outside of this farmyard is her end and she goes no further. It's the end of the road for her, and also for the footage with Cage intoning that he can't save her and save the world....indicating there may be a terrible choice ahead.

What's most impressive about Edge of Tomorrow is how cleverly it plays with its tried and tested time travel concepts, dizzying it all up with an injection of humour and wit that's perfectly timed and tonally spot on. The film looks like it'll be a lot of fun, without easing up on the FX front or the relationship side. It's clear that Liman's concocted something very cool, and Cruise and Blunt are perfectly pitched for this duo. It may have lashings of Looper, Groundhog Day and Starship Troopers, but it looks as if Edge of Tomorrow is about to provide something unique in a busy blockbuster season.

Tracks: Movie Review

Tracks: Movie Review

Cast: Mia Wasikowska, Adam Driver, Camels, The Outback
Director: John Curran

Based on the memoir by Robyn Davidson, this is the sixth attempt to make a film of her 1,700 mile trek across the deserts of Western Australia, with nothing more than a few camels and a faithful dog ( as well as some demons from her past)

Wasikowska stars as Davidson, a woman whose dogged determination to get what she wants is clear from the start; she detests the company of other humans, preferring to connect with just her lab Diggity and the camels she's so desperate to claim as her own.

But when Davidson pitches her idea of the trek to National Geographic to get some money, she ends up being saddled for parts of the journey with a photographer called Rick Smolan (Girls' Adam Driver, all big hair, big glasses and goofy one liners), which proves to be an unwanted thorn in her side.

However, she sets off on the trek, with animals in tow - but also, a heap of personal demons to deal with among the crushing distance and weight of personal expectation.

Tracks is a terrifically shot travelogue, a piece which reminds us sometimes the journey is about the journey, rather than just the destination.

Wasikowska's cold Robyn takes a while to warm to (sample line - "Nice people confound me" - she's selfish, yet wildly self-sufficient and reliant only on what's around her in the Aussie outback and her own inner strength to try and complete the journey. She takes on an arc as you'd expect on a journey like this - and Wasikowska is totally spellbinding as she negotiates the highs and lows of the trek, making the exploits of an ordinary person seem nothing short of exceptional and inspirational.

The rapport with Adam Driver's Rick Smolan isn't an easy one and you really end up feeling for the guy as he tries to break down her barriers and destroy her reticence to other human beings. Inter-spliced with flashbacks to Robyn's childhood, Curran effectively dripfeeds the reasons why she's such a cold fish and grounds her in a level of understanding that's relatable.

Sure, there are a few oddballs among the way - but a friendship struck with an Aborigine who speaks only 3 words of English adds an odd level of kinship that's sorely needed as the film progresses on its relatively solo journey.

As you'd expect from this, the cinematography is the star with Curran catching the danger and the beauty of the outback with stunning ease; throw in a couple of cranky camels as well for good measure, a comradeship with a trusty old pooch and you've really got something a little bit special with Tracks.

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The Selfish Giant: Movie Review

The Selfish Giant: Movie Review

Cast: Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas, Sean Gilder
Director: Clio Barnard

There's electricity in the air in Brit film The Selfish Giant.

From filmmaker Clio Barnard who came to our attention with the Arbor, is this latest tale, based loosely on the Oscar Wilde short story of the same name.

Focussing on the sweet, yet dysfunctional, friendship of two 13-year-old boys, Swifty and Arbor (both young actors delivering stunning performances), it's the story of their lives in the grim up-north British world of council estates, continual debt and scrabbling to make ends meet.

The pair first form a friendship after being excluded from school; forced to stay away, they end up feeling entranced by the world of Kitten, a scrap dealer, whose den of inequity holds the promise of money which so eludes the duo and their families.

It's Arbor who leads the way into a world of collecting junk and trying his luck, with Swifty more interested in the horses that Kitten owns - and particularly the ones which he races on the streets in yet another example of how gypsy culture's become so prevalent within the UK.

But Arbor's a live wire in more ways than one - and when he sees there's money to be made from stealing and melting down wire, he throws the duo on a collision course with tragedy as the inevitable ante is upped and Arbor searches for a big pay off.

The sensitive gentle giant Swifty, with his love of horses, makes a perfect foil to Arbor's ADHD pill taking troublemaker. But at the end of the day, this is a story of friendship and of a relationship torn asunder either by petty jealousy when Arbor discovers Kitten favours Swifty for the racing or tragedy when the final big steal comes around with an audience inducing shock. It's sensitively told, and devastatingly painful as the final scenes play out.

It's here the young actor playing Arbor comes to the fore - his final scenes hanging around the streets are raw with pain and emotion and recall some of the behaviour of the Greeks in mourning.

Make no mistake, while this grit Brit hit is a tale of woe, it's got a vein of humour running throughout which is impossible to deny and black humour which is as hilarious as it is heartfelt. The council estates bring the miserabilism but film-maker Barnard keeps it on the right side of dry humour rather than dour depression.

You'd have to have no heart to be moved by The Selfish Giant; its two young leads are spectacular and its cinematography is stunning to view - sure, there's electricity in the air in this film - and it crackles with cinematic aplomb and storytelling genius. Highly recommended. 

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Nymph()Maniac: Volumes I and II: Movie Review

Nymph()Maniac: Volumes I and II: Movie Review

Cast: Stacy Martin, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Stellan Skarsgaard, Christian Slater, Shia LaBeouf, Uma Thurman
Director: Lars Von Trier

Cinema's enfant terrible returns to fire off another salvo of provocation and start up another round of taboo discussion.

This time round, following a series of O face posters, and a tease campaign that's been guaranteed to whip all and sundry into a frenzy, and over a more cinema friendly 4 hour, 2 volume cut (though he has worked on a 5-and-a-half-hour director's cut), he tells the tale of Joe (played in later years by Charlotte Gainsbourg and in younger form by newcomer Stacy Martin). After being discovered beaten in an alleyway by Skarsgaard's Seligman, Joe takes to telling him of her life and loves and how she came to be in said alleyway.

Nymph()maniac Volume 1 deals with Joe's more formative years, her relationship with her ailing father (played by Christian Slater) and her coming to terms with who she is.  Divvied up into five chapters in Volume I, it also looks at her relationship with her apparent love Jerome (played by Shia LaBeouf who delivers one of the worst English accents ever committed to celluloid). It's clearly aiming for the more inflammatory, as it shows a couple of young girls trawling a train for men to sleep with as a competition to one up each other and win a tub of candy. Yet, it's also incredibly playful in among the graphic moments. Seligman is to all intents and purposes a monk, who's chosen books to life and who draws various analogies with Joe's choices to fly fishing. It's hilarious at times how shoehorned in that becomes but it serves as a philosophical bent to the film as well - parallels between sex and sin are drawn, the Fibonacci numbers are mentioned in among Joe's apparent regrets as she rhapsodises over her life.

The crowning moment of Nymph()maniac Volume 1  comes from Uma Thurman's appearance as a slighted woman who brings her children to Joe's house so that they can see the "whoring bed". It's a shocking scene as it teeters on extremely uncomfortable, pathetically sad and something more volatile.

Nymph()maniac Volume 1 ends on an almost unoriginal note - before images of plenty of sex are thrown in as a trailer for Nymph()maniac Volume II. It's touches like this that leave you unsure whether von Trier's playing with you and your expectations or the marketers have decided the most provocative moments will make you feel something. But the thing is, Nymphomaniac is not actually as button-pushing or as controversial as it purports to be. It's almost as if von Trier's lost some of his bite in among the playful narrative moments and close ups of phalluses; you roll your eyes in almost boredom rather than in anger. It's the most stunning part of Nymphomaniac - that a once notorious auteur has had to rely more on the marketing than the celluloid content to shock.

Nymph()maniac Volume II disappoints as it runs out of steam - it goes more for graphic rather than the philosophical debate and while Gainsbourg commands the screen, the final moments, just when you think von Trier's done more to combat accusations of misogyny and that sex is art, he throws in a moment that makes you throw up your hands in frustration as the screen goes to black.

All in all, Nymph()maniac is nowhere as bad or as notorious as you'd expect - it's certainly not titillating or erotic, merely functional in parts. You may actually be more surprised by what you see, but if you're a Von Trier connoisseur, you'll definitely feel the controversial auteur isn't as bad as he could be and that's perhaps the biggest shock of the film.

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